184 Days and Counting

An update on Ironman training

With six months to go before Ironman Florida (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run), I’m immersed in base-building mode. My workout weeks typically look like this: 3 swims, 3 runs, 3 bikes, 1 strength, 1 rest day. I’m not doing crazy volume yet—my longest run over the last few months has been 10 miles and my longest bike topped at 50 on Sunday. I keep most of my swims short so I can work on technique (though one weekend morning I swam 3 miles just to see if I could crank through it).

While nowhere near ready, of course, I feel good for this stage of the quest: Not panicked. Not hurting. Not searching for a what-in-heck-did-I-get-myself-into emoticon.

I’m just trying to—as my training buddy Sean tells me—move forward smoothly and steadily. With many months and miles ahead, I also know that the largest physical and mental challenges await. My central questions right now:

Will I be able to manage the three Fs? Trainer Jeff, who I’ve worked with off and on for years and who’s a certified triathlon coach, says the key to Ironman training (and really, any kind) is form, fitness, and fatigue. Learn proper form to maximize efficiency (especially true in the water), increase your fitness levels to handle the crazy distances you’ll need to cover to prepare for the event, and learn when to push through and when to scale back when your body says it would rather stop than go. (Note: Another F usually presents itself when trying to ride uphill into a headwind.)

Can I figure out the food? The danger in training for any endurance event: Plowing through not just the miles, but also the ice-cream aisle. And the processed-meat aisle. And the baked-goods aisle. And any aisle that includes foods containing salt, crunch, and artificial-cheese flavors. So I’m sitting in this weird space—making sure I’m getting enough good calories to fuel my distances (and admittedly some treat calories), but also wanting to drop more pounds before race day to make sure I’m as light as possible.

Would it be improper to ask for a pillow for my bike? The worst discomfort so far: Not my legs, not my lungs, but from sitting in the saddle for hours at a time.

Can I stay in my bubble? Sean (who crushed Ironman Florida in 2010 and is also doing this year’s race) says I have to stop worrying about numbers and times, about how fast or slow I think I’m going, about what other people are doing. For someone who just wants to finish under the time limit of 17 hours (and make each cut-off time) and who often gets de-railed by seeing others smoke by and ahead of me, this will be a challenge. But that’s all part of the journey, right? Getting your mind aligned with your body. So my goal for the rest of the base-building phase before I hit the heavy-duty numbers of summer: Stay the course. In order to finish the course.

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Ted Spiker has not had an artificially cheese-flavored snack in at least 37 hours. You can follow him on Twitter at @ProfSpiker.